When Sarah Tuft was a little girl she didn’t have any problem eating her fruits and vegetables. In fact, her parents often had to force her to eat the other part of dinner—the meat and potatoes. Sarah’s love for produce, organic produce, was fueled by the fact she spent her play time climbing fruit trees and watching her father run a successful orchard in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Now that Sarah is a grown up, she wants every child to have the chance to eat fruits that are organic and natural. Along with her father and her brother, they have launched a new company called Wacky Apple. Her dad takes care of the big stuff, her brother runs the property and buildings, and Sarah does marketing. It’s a true family business, built in a unified desire to get pesticide free foods into the market place.
Here at GeekMom, we talk a lot about healthy foods. Between us we have kids of all ages. From toddlers to teens, we never stop worrying about what kind of foods are fueling our kids on a daily basis. We want them to eat the whole grains and healthy stuff, and they often reach for the sweet stuff.
I was sent a sample package of Wacky Apple products. As soon as I opened the box, the teenagers attacked. The labels are eye catching and fun. And once you tear them open, they definitely meet the taste challenge.
Wacky Apple applesauce and Fruit Flats (a nice replacement for the brand name Fruit Roll Ups, which are equal to a candy bar in our house) are naturally sweet, have no pesticides (they know because they grow the apples) and have no artificial colors or preservatives. They are fruit… just yummy, yummy fruit.
I was drawn to this company for several reasons. I first heard about them in our local magazine, called 5280 (Denver’s altitude, if you didn’t catch that). I was intrigued that they were locally owned and operated and just west of my home. I’m a sucker for a local family company that has big dreams about helping families eat healthier.
It was hard not to fall in love with their products once they hit my kitchen table. My kids have always loved Fruit Roll Ups and now I have a healthier option called Flat Fruit to keep in the pantry. The same is true for the apple sauces, in different flavors and the wide variety of fruit juices.
Then I found out another fun fact about Wacky Apples: Sarah’s dad, Edward, found out that school lunches in his local schools were full of a lot of questionable items. It bothered him that there were fresh, local, organic options available but not being used. Sarah discovered that there were many Nutritional Directors who were in charge of creating lunch menus who loved the idea of getting better foods on the lunch trays. Sarah worked with them to find a pricing that would work for everyone and with a lot of work and effort, Wacky Apple products are now part of the menu in many Colorado school districts.
Just recently they donated many of their products to the Estes Park schools, as the local families were recovering from the massive floods.
I love the idea of feeding my kids fun fruit that I don’t have to worry about. Knowing that the people behind the product are community minded, and truly care about their products, makes me happy to give them my business.
I can find Wacky Apples in many stores around Denver. But, if you don’t happen to live in the area where these delicious products are made, you can order online, too. Right now the only online product is an amazing gift box, filled with many products. It costs just 20 dollars. It would make a great gift for teachers, hard to buy for relatives, and even your own kitchen table. In the very near future there will be a link to buy all of their products, so stay tuned. If you want to win some of their products, and keep up with what their company is doing, check them out on Facebook.
GeekMom received this product for review purposes.
